OT recommendations for a cell phone

[Doug W]

Consumer cellular, no contract, no bull, great service and none of the cell phone jackassery of other companies like Verizon!
Consumer Cellular Cell Phones & Plans | Consumer Cellular


Been a customer for almost 20 years.

I buy a cheapy and just replace it every couple of years, but I pretty much use it as just a phone, not as a toy, security blanket or best friend.

 

[jackal]

Thanks for all the good info.
I'm looking at a couple of different ones.
I'll get bwck as soon as I buy one.

 

[R. Dan]

Kyocera Dura Force is the one piece version. Some have a sapphire screen which is hard to scratch.
Bill D

I have the DuraForce Pro 2 on AT&T. I also got caught in the AT&T 3G changeover and had to upgrade. I have to say that this new Kyocera phone is light years better than the old Samsung Rugby I had been running forever. With the old phone, all I ever used it for was phone calls, texting, and the calculator. It was absolutely useless for anything else but it was bullet proof so I ran it for years. This Kyocera is also bullet proof and I actually use a lot of the features it has. I'm liking it.

 

[Marty Feldman]

Consumer cellular, no contract, no bull, great service and none of the cell phone jackassery of other companies like Verizon!
Consumer Cellular Cell Phones & Plans | Consumer Cellular

Your link --> "Secure Connection Failed"

-Marty-

 

[kenton]

I bought a Galaxy S8 a few years ago that I have been happy with so far. I picked the S8 because my dad was looking for a phone at the time and said it was the easiest to repair/most durable. I had been avoiding getting a new phone because I didn't want to do that research so I took him at his word.

I purchased it used off of Swappa.com for about 100 Canadian Pesos if I recall correctly.

 

[EPAIII]

SD memory card? I would think almost any of them will either have one or have a slot for one. I just purchased a card and it slipped into my $25 Nokia with no sweat.

Many to choose from but I won't use a phone without an SD memory card.

Brent

 

[michiganbuck]

3G,4G, and 5G have to be considered as Verizon won't activate a 3G phone anymore...

at kellyroadcamp (My hunting property) Verizon works but some others services don't work.

 

[Tony Quiring]

Samsung s21 does NOT have slot for additional memory but s20fe does.

Everything that matters, amera and features same but could newer on s21 and more expensive.

Ordered a 256 memory from Amazon, was cheap and some reviews stated did not match labeled size, it was on sale for 30 bucks and we could send it back if needed.

Put in adaptor on laptop to transfer files and it was a terabyte model, bonus...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[jackal]

Thanks for all the info.
I just ordered a new Pixel 3xl. It is brand new in the box.
It is waterproof, gorilla glass , etc. Also, ordered a Lifeproof case for it.
I ended up with $250 including tax.
Thanks again.
Y'all always have the best advice and experiences.
Real life reviews on stuff.

 

[tnmgcarbide]

i refuse to use anything but the kyocera Dura Force pro . it
is one of very few phones sporting actual buttons- 9 of them
to be exact . i hate phones w/out any buttons . they are impossible to use with gloves on .
it is also extremely tough, waterproof ,shockproof, ip68
rated, sapphire screen, super loud speakerphone, wireless Qi charging and now
extremely inexpensive on ebay . you can now buy them on ebay
for around $100 new, unlocked .
there are youtube videos of people driving over them with a car
,freezing them in a block of ice and calling the phone, throwing
them from rooftops onto asphalt driveways. the pro-2 phone
is newer, with a faster cpu, but it has fewer physical buttons.

 

[Bill D]

The dura force used to be only some had the saphire screeen. I know the verizon ones had saphire the others maybe or maybe not. Only thing harder then saphire is diamond so HSS should not scratch it.
Bought the wife a new phone recently and it came down to two. one did not have wireless charging even though it had a better camera. I was surprised that was something to worry about?
Bill D

 

[TeachMePlease]

Samsung s21 does NOT have slot for additional memory but s20fe does.

Everything that matters, amera and features same but could newer on s21 and more expensive.

Ordered a 256 memory from Amazon, was cheap and some reviews stated did not match labeled size, it was on sale for 30 bucks and we could send it back if needed.

Put in adaptor on laptop to transfer files and it was a terabyte model, bonus...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

Be aware that a lot of those no-names have simply been re-written to appear to your computer as a larger size than they really are. Given that a 1TB Micro SD from SanDisk is about $134... If you paid anything less than $100, I'd bet dollars to donuts that you have a much smaller card than you think you do.

 

[Tony Quiring]

And lesser quality...died today...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[TeachMePlease]

And lesser quality...died today...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

I'm not a snob about many things. But when it comes to flash memory, it's SanDisk or bust.

 

[Milland]

Be aware that a lot of those no-names have simply been re-written to appear to your computer as a larger size than they really are. Given that a 1TB Micro SD from SanDisk is about $134... If you paid anything less than $100, I'd bet dollars to donuts that you have a much smaller card than you think you do.

There's a number of free utilities that can check the actual memory size of a card, here's a site with a bunch of options:

11 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disk

It's a good idea to use an anti-virus package to check utilities before running them.


Here's an article on general risks of faked memory:

How to Identify and Test Fake Memory Cards

 

[Milland]

And lesser quality...died today...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

It died because it was hacked. Check the second link in my previous post.

 

[Mtndew]

Thanks for all the info.
I just ordered a new Pixel 3xl. It is brand new in the box.
It is waterproof, gorilla glass , etc. Also, ordered a Lifeproof case for it.
I ended up with $250 including tax.
Thanks again.
Y'all always have the best advice and experiences.
Real life reviews on stuff.

That's the one I have. Bought it when it first came out and use it everyday. Battery life is still great.
Get a tough case for it as it has a glass back for wireless charging.
OtterBox has probably the best cases, but I have a Spigen Armor case for mine.

 

[Bill D]

One advantage of the durapro is no need to spend money on a case or screen protector. It is bigger and heavier then most until you add a case and screen protector to them.
Bill D

PS: I was wrong carbide is harder then sapphire.

 

[Bobw]

The dura force used to be only some had the saphire screeen. I know the verizon ones had saphire the others maybe or maybe not. Only thing harder then saphire is diamond so HSS should not scratch it.

I've had my DuraForce Pro 2 for 3 years now.. Been a good phone, didn't slow down at 2 years like
every other phone I've owned has.

I've beaten banged smashed slammed thrown that phone, and I only had one problem about 6 months ago..
The screen cracked. Just one line straight across. And it only fell about 3 feet out of my shirt
pocket when I was bending over.. I've done that a thousand times, and something just hit wrong..
No scratches on the screen though.

I've even dropped it in the lake.. Which it should(did) survive easily, especially since there is
a section in the manual on how to take under water videos with it.

Looking to upgrade at some point, but the new one seems to have horrible reviews.

 

[crickets]

I am fairly tech savvy... and I chose not to spend more than ~$100 on a phone. I've had just two phones in the last 6 years - subsidized Motorola G 4 Play from Amazon, I think it was about $100 new. I ran it for many years until the USB port broke and I couldn't charge it anymore. Eventually I got a replacement USB port board from China for $5 and fixed it, but some service changes motivated me to get a "new" phone anyway, which ended up being a dual-sim pre-owned Motorola G7 for $100. I try not to treat my gear like it's disposable, even when it's cheap, so in the last 20 years I haven't broken a phone by dropping it. It is especially critical these days that the phone is treated like your life depends on it, because it sort of does

For service Google Voice works very well. I've been using it as a primary provider for about 10 years now. It is still free for unlimited minutes and texts, at expense of Google's machine learning systems looking into your life. Which is not a problem, considering many of us already sacrificed privacy by using their other stuff like Gmail.

Finally to make Google work on the go one just needs ANY cellphone service with data available. I typically just try to get a sub-$10 monthly service, and use wifi as much as possible, effectively never running out of any allowances.